My Hands
by Riniel Haerion
Summary: Things were changing. Not just the sudden loss of a limb, but inside himself. Inside everyone. (SPD AU, really deviates from the plot from Missing and forward) (Possible Bridge/Sky, haven't decided yet)


All he could remember was pain.

The sounds of Jack screaming in horror and a horrible searing pain in his left leg. His mind was in agony, a mix of his own pain and the strong emotions Jack was feeling penetrated his mind and made his vision blurry. He could barely concentrate on one thing when so much was attacking his subconscious. He couldn't handle it at all, and the last thing he could remember was the distant sounds of Jack calling for help, for backup. And something about blood, lots and lots of blood. After that, there was only darkness.

When Bridge woke up, he was greeted with the ceiling of the SPD medical bay. He was dazed and confused, and his head was still throbbing. He rubbed his head and realized that he wasn't wearing his leather gloves. He quickly looked around hoping for any sight of them, but he couldn't find them anywhere.

"You're awake?" Bridge jumped slightly at the sound of a voice. A strangely familiar looking man wearing the bright white SPD nurse's uniform walked up to Bridge's bed holding a clipboard in his hands.

"Uh...Yeah. I guess so." Bridge looked at the man curiously. "I don't recognize you. But I sort of do. I mean, I go to the medical bay a lot. More than I'd like to admit. And I've never seen you. Well, at least I think I haven't. I-"

He laughed. "I just transferred here from another SPD branch. Dr. Felix assigned me to take care of you while you were still passed out." He shifted slightly. "You really scared us for awhile there. We almost thought you weren't going to make it."

"What do you mean?" Bridge asked. "All I remember is being trapped in that room and Jack helping me out. After that it gets blurry…"

The nurse set the clipboard down and sat down next to Bridge. "Well you're right, Cadet Landors helped you out. But unfortunately the room was already dangerously close to shutting when he pulled you out and...Well, one of your legs got crushed. There was nothing we could do by the time we got there. We had to get you back here before you lost anymore blood."

Bridge was frozen in shock. Did that mean…?

He slowly reached down to his blanket and yanked it away from his legs...Or rather, leg. What was his left leg now had the knee and down completely missing. Nothing but stark white bandages covering up the wound. He looked up at the nurse with his mouth slightly agape.

"Why can't I read your aura?" Not the question he was originally going for, but it would have to do.

The nurse shrugged. "I don't have one. I'm an android. That's why Dr. Felix assigned me to you. It was easier to have me care for you than having another nurse take care not to have direct skin contact with you while you're more vulnerable and make you feel any more discomfort. My name is Mackenzie. Or Mack, for short." He grinned.

"Wait a minute. That's why you looked familiar! You were the red Overdrive Ranger! I remember learning about you when I was a trainee here! But…Why are you working as a nurse for SPD? I would have thought you would come back to be a ranger again."

Mack's smile fell slightly. "The red ranger...That wasn't me."

"It wasn't? But-"

"In the final battle, the original Mack was damaged so much that he wasn't able to survive. The team unfortunately didn't want to take no for an answer, and had him rebuilt. I have all of Mack's memories, his personality, everything between us is essentially identical…

"But it isn't. I'm not really the same Mack that they knew. And all of us knew that. We drifted apart, and I left to try and forge my own life. That's how I ended up at SPD working as a nurse. I didn't want to become a ranger again. That was the old Mack. I wanted to do something different." He went silent, before taking a deep breath and a grin appeared on his face again, but this time more forced. "Okay, I should get you your gloves back. No doubt your friends will be wanting to visit you now that you're awake."

Bridge watched Mack as he stood up and left, still slightly stunned. He looked down at his waist again, staring at his missing leg. Now that he had been sufficiently distracted for a few moments, the reality of the situation was sinking in. How was he going to be a ranger with part of his leg gone? Half of the time he was barely hanging on with his own powers, as unstable as they could be. This was the final nail in the coffin. He couldn't stay a ranger. If anything, he could hope that the Commander would let him work with Kat and Boom.

"Bridge?" Bridge looked up to see Sky standing in the doorway, a rare smile on his face. "You really are okay! The team and I were worried about you."

Bridge shrugged his shoulders slightly as Sky sat down on the edge of the bed, replacing the spot that Mack had left. "I'm as good as I can be I guess." He said, motioning to his leg.

Sky's face fell. "I still think-"

"I know what you're going to say Sky. But I don't think I'll still be able to be a ranger with part of my leg gone. You know that."

With Sky's presence, Bridge's headache was ebbing away slightly. Without his gloves, he could feel Sky's emotions, but they were nothing but relief and joy that Bridge was okay, and it was making Bridge feel a bit relieved as a result as well. He may not be able to be a ranger anymore, but at least he wasn't dead right?

"Oh, Cadet Tate." Mack had returned, holding Bridge's gloves in his hands. "I guess you found out Bridge woke up?"

Sky nodded. "Yeah. I assume that Jack, Syd, and Z will be here any second to pile onto Bridge."

Mack laughed. "Better give him back his gloves then. Don't want Bridge to pass out as soon as he's already woken up."

Bridge gratefully accepted back his leather gloves and slipped them back on. Almost immediately the emotions he had been feeling from Sky were stifled. He actually missed them slightly, but he knew he wasn't going to be able to bare all the emotions from his team mates when they finally stopped by.

Sure enough, nearly a minute later the rest of the team burst through the medical bay doors, and Sky had to create a shield to stop them from piling right on top of Bridge. Everyone was so busy crowding around Bridge that he only just noticed that Mack seemed to have slipped out of the room to leave them all alone. They were all arguing over the same thing: whether or not Bridge could still be a ranger. They were proving to be a bit more difficult to convince than Sky was though.

"Come on Bridge, this is SPD! They have the technology to give you a good prosthetic leg that you can fight with in no time! The team wouldn't be the same without you!" Jack stated.

"Yeah! You'll always be apart of the team, Bridgey." Syd concluded.

"But...With the amount of time that I'll need to spend healing, and then getting used to a prosthetic leg. I'm going to have to change my fighting style to compensate and-"

Sky put a finger on his mouth, and Bridge almost flinched at the sudden surge of emotions he felt from the skin contact but said nothing. "Bridge. I think the team has spoken. We'll be able to handle everything with the Omega Ranger and the Shadow Ranger helping us while you recover."

Bridge couldn't help but smile. It was times like these that always assured Bridge that his team did really enjoy his presence, and weren't just tolerating him just because the team needed his aura reading powers. But that just made him remember the weird surge of emotions he felt when Sky touched his lips. His powers were usually concentrated on his hands, the only other time they really spread to the rest of his body were when he was asleep or extremely fatigued, which is when he had his defences down.

He was feeling a bit weak though, so maybe that's why he had reacted like that? Although he had to admit even beforehand his powers did seem to start becoming less stable than they had been before. Maybe they were finding another place to manifest themselves. But the lips? That was weird, even for Bridge. But then again...The lips were a pretty sensitive part of the body. Maybe it wasn't that weird? But honestly it sounded like a weird romance novel idea. Or maybe…

"Bridge? You still there?" Z flicked him on the forehead.

Bridge felt a shock, but nothing like when his lips had been touched. "Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry. I think I zoned out."

"It's fine, but we have to go. Cruger called. You probably need to get some rest." Jack replied.

He watched his teammates troop out of the medical bay, and felt lonely watching them leave without him.

"You'll be okay." Mack had returned. "Like they said, you'll be up and running in no time."

"Yeah, I know."

Bridge removed one of his gloves and absent-mindedly ran them across his face. He couldn't create a response like being touched from someone else. But he had to wonder...Was something changing? Really honestly changing?

Maybe his lost leg wasn't the only new occurrence happening to him.

000

A/N: So you have your proper in-story explanation as to why Mack is there...But then you have my actual author reason of Mack being there. Being that I really didn't want to create an original character so I just went with Mack. At least it sorta made sense.


End file.
